‘Under dictatorship, justice must be met with Molotov cocktails.’
That is the slogan of Black Spark, a Russian resistance group that advocates for the armed overthrowing of Vladimir Putin and works alongside Ukraine to weaken the Kremlin from within Russia itself.
The underground movement has emerged from the shadows under the public representation of Igor Volobuev, a former banking executive who defected to Ukraine after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and took up arms against his former homeland.
Now decorated by Ukraine and awarded the Golden Cross in the name of President Volodymyr Zelensky, Volobuev claims Black Spark has built a clandestine network stretching across Russia that is carrying out sabotage attacks against military, energy and transport infrastructure in an effort to drain the Kremlin’s resources.
‘The core of our rebel movement is made up of those commonly considered the middle class,’ the group’s manifesto states. ‘We are the true elite, who have been trying for years to change the Russian regime peacefully. [But] Putin’s terror has destroyed our faith in dialogue.’
According to Volobuev, the group’s primary goal is to systematically weaken Putin’s ability to wage war through violent resistance.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘Black Spark’s mission is to deplete the economic potential of Putin’s regime.
‘Particular emphasis is placed on crippling the oil industry as the regime’s lifeblood.’
The organisation claims to have carried out a string of attacks targeting Russia’s transport networks, oil infrastructure and military supply chains.
In a string of newly published videos on Black Spark’s Telegram channel, the group appears to show its members infiltrating oil facilities and military units
They spread liquid accelerants before setting the sites ablaze, claiming to destroy equipment worth millions
In a series of newly published videos on its Telegram channel, the group appears to show its members infiltrating oil facilities and military units, where they spread liquid accelerants before setting the sites ablaze, claiming to destroy equipment worth millions.
Other footage shows operatives planting explosive devices, often marked with the group’s logo, which they describe as ‘a symbol of courage and retribution for the true fighters against Putin’s dictatorship’.
‘Since the beginning of the year alone, Black Spark has destroyed and damaged several dozen railway locomotives intended for transporting oil, petroleum products, and military cargo. The damage is estimated at up to $50million,’ Volobuev said.
Among its most recent operations was the destruction of a railway tank car carrying 73,000 litres of diesel fuel in Krasnodar, a city in the south-west of Russia near the Black Sea.
Video footage shows a remotely detonated explosive device destroying the tanker, which was apparently destined for the Lukoil fuel network.
Much of Black Spark’s activity centres on Russia’s vast railway system, which it views as essential for transporting military equipment and oil revenues.
In one operation, the group said it received intelligence that components, engines and military equipment were due to be transported from Chelyabinsk, near the border with Kazakhstan, to military units in the Orenburg region around 350miles west.
Members allegedly set fire to a VL10 freight locomotive hours before departure, damaging the engine and disrupting the shipment. A second locomotive was later targeted at Novosergievskaya station.
‘In recent times alone, we have damaged and destroyed seven locomotives worth a total of approximately 400 million rubles, and the FSB has been running amok, searching unsuccessfully for us across Russia,’ the group claimed alongside videos of the operation.
Another mission targeted the strategic Agryz to Akbash railway line that runs via Krugloe Pole, also near the Kazakh border.
Black Spark claimed responsibility for two explosions at a railway station in Naberezhnye Chelny, near Kazan in central Russia, that destroyed two tank cars carrying 140 tons of specialised mineral oil allegedly intended for military equipment.
The group described the route as a heavily guarded artery serving Russia’s military-industrial complex. ‘It was uninterrupted, until we showed up,’ the statement said.
Elsewhere, Black Spark claimed responsibility for destroying two locomotives used in transporting oil along the Trans-Siberian Railway.
‘The oil industry is the lifeblood of the Putin regime, and we have been targeting it, and will continue to do so, to reduce the Kremlin’s revenues,’ the group declared.
The movement has also expanded beyond rail sabotage, claiming it blew up two major Gazprom gas pipelines near St Petersburg – the Belousovo-Leningrad and Konnaya Lakhta pipelines.
According to the group, both supplied energy to major defence manufacturers, including Severnaya Verf, Admiralty Shipyards and facilities operated by missile producer Almaz-Antey.
‘The scale of the destruction at the Belousovo-Leningrad gas pipeline is such that a section of the pipeline has been out of service for several weeks,’ the organisation claimed.
It has also targeted infrastructure connected directly to military production.
In Chelyabinsk, Black Spark said members burned three railway automation and telemetry units serving a line connected to a military-industrial complex after learning a shipment from a defence plant was scheduled to leave.
The organisation claims to have carried out a string of attacks targeting Russia’s transport networks, oil infrastructure and military supply chains
Igor Volobuev, a Kremlin-linked Gazprombank vice-president defected to Ukraine after Putin’s invasion and took up arms against Russia
Volobuev alleged the group was involved in attacks on the Ilsky Oil Refinery, near the Black Sea, the Kirishinefteorgsintez refinery, near St Petersburg, and two tankers carrying weapons and military equipment in the Caspian Sea.
‘The losses from these operations amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars,’ he said.
Volobuev also claimed Black Spark has cyber warfare capabilities, alleging that members destroyed the IT infrastructure of Trans-Oil, a major petroleum products trading company.
‘Terabytes of commercial information were erased from the company’s electronic archives, trading operations were paralyzed, and product shipments, including those under international contracts, were disrupted,’ he said.
The organisation portrays itself as the beginning of a wider resistance movement inside Russia.
Despite having only a modest social media presence, Volobuev insists the group has supporters embedded throughout Russian society, including within government institutions and major corporations.
‘Black Spark’s advantage lies in having highly informed members within its ranks who have access to various government offices and major business structures, including Gazprom,’ he said.
The former banker argues that growing economic problems, battlefield losses in Ukraine and tightening political repression are creating fertile ground for resistance.
He added: ‘There are enough people in Russia who hate Putin and his gang.
‘Putin relies on fear; Black Spark relies on the power of persuasion for those who are tired of enduring, and the force of persuasion for enemies. The boiling point in Russian society is rising. An explosion is inevitable.’
Last week, it was revealed that almost half a million Russian soldiers have now been killed since the invasion of Ukraine began.
Morale is low, as the tide seems to be turning in Ukraine’s favour, with a recent poll showing that Putin is more unpopular than he has been in years.
Four years of war with Ukraine have battered the federation with rising food prices, higher taxes, and inflation.
And analysis based on data from the Institute for the Study of War found Ukraine retook more territory than it lost in May for the second consecutive month.
Ukraine gained a net 282 square kilometres in the weeks after Russia had already surrendered around 120 square kilometres in April.
The ISW said Ukraine’s increasingly effective drone campaigns are disrupting Russia’s ability to move troops and supplies to frontline positions.
Volobuev said: ‘Putin is leading Russia toward disaster. His goal is to cling to power at any cost. He is drowning Russia in blood, repression, poverty, ruin, and degradation.
‘Putin is the cause of Russia’s current woes; Black Spark is the consequence of his anti-people policies. There is always a right to defend oneself by force against oppression.’
The organisation’s long term goal is to create a climate where what they call ‘de-Putinisation’ would be possible.
Morale is low, as the tide seems to be turning in Ukraine’s favour, with a recent poll showing that Vladimir Putin is more unpopular than he has been in years
Volobuev claims Black Spark has highly informed members within its ranks who have access to various government offices and major business structures
Volobuev explained that an entire generation has grown up in Russia without knowing that things could be any different than under Putin’s 26-year ‘dictatorship’.
‘Russia needs de-Putinisation,’ he said, ‘We must completely eradicate the imperial, expansionist, anti-human ideology, remove Putinists from politics, the economy, and education. We need a trial of Putinism.’
While Ukraine seemingly gains momentum through domestic drone attacks that humiliate Russia globally, the former banker argues that this is not enough.
Volobuev condemned Ukraine’s allies, arguing that the West consistently hesitates when it should instead be organizing a full-scale retaliatory response.
He added: ‘Putin is banking on your fear. He blackmails you with nuclear weapons, and you constantly back down.
‘There is only one way to stop Putin – through the collective efforts of the entire West, to knock his teeth out. You are far stronger than him, yet you behave like a helpless, spineless amoeba.
‘Your concessions to Putin will cost you far more than mobilizing forces for a retaliatory war against him today.
‘Putin will stop only when he realizes that every act of aggression on his part will be met with a merciless blow to the gut.’